If being overweight does not help in sports, thin people also have difficulties in disciplines such as weight training. Indeed, low body fat is a definite advantage for being a good climber in cycling or running a marathon, but for muscle mass gain, it poses a problem.
If you’re in this situation, don’t jump on the bad fats and think eating a McDonald’s a day is a good idea. You’ll end up with a belly and no muscle.
Here are the right things to do.
Create a customized diet and increase the number of meals
Nutrition is essential in any goal of mass gain. In fact, you must create a customized diet that includes a sufficient intake of calories for bodybuilding, but that is not too fatty in order to avoid bad fats.
This extra mass, as a result of training, is then transformed into muscle. Protein must be present in large quantities in your diet and you must increase your number of meals.
Bodybuilders eat all the time, or at least that is the impression they give when you are around them. Between meals, snacks, and protein shakes, they are at least five intakes a day.
You can find many nutrition-related articles on the web for more details.
Increase your protein intake
To get enough protein, you’ll need to prioritize certain foods. At the top of the list is egg white (but not egg yolk, which has too much fat). Chicken is also a favorite among bodybuilding enthusiasts.
If you’re a thin vegetarian, don’t panic. You’ll find plant-based protein in plenty of foods like beans. Again, there is no shortage of material online.
In addition, you can take a mass gainer like those presented on this site if you are thin and have difficulty gaining weight (endomorphic morphology). Essentially composed of proteins and carbohydrates, the mass gainer quickly provides the energy required by your body to gain muscle.
The right weight training program
“I work out” doesn’t mean anything. For some, the practice means picking up a medium weight dumbbell and lifting it to exhaustion. For others, it means going to the gym, talking to your friends and doing a set every 10 minutes while lifting your max weight.
Building muscle in a spectacular way is difficult. Watch a bodybuilding video like the ones on Netflix to see how hard it is. You really need to “rip it up” in the gym.
But, not just any old way! The best thing to do is to make a very precise program including the exercises to be done (you don’t work all the muscle groups every day), the number of repetitions and to follow the progress. In addition, don’t forget the rest days that are essential for muscle reconstruction.
Some types of training may work for you, while others may not.